Brunching and Gift Opening

We had a lovely brunch today courtesy of our neighbors Marilyn and Ken - eggs, homefries, french toast, beignets, soup, salad, and delicious desserts!

And if that wasn't generous enough, they also got Maya a lovely Easter basket and birthday balloons for Hyder. Of course, Maya thoroughly enjoyed all of these treats, including the balloons:

As well as a fun squishy ball:

And a new monkey to hug:

And a new stacking toy:

Maya is one lucky little girl! We are so fortunate to have such wonderful neighbors in our lives.

And Even More Dancing

I know I've posted quite a few dancing videos, but as usual, I thought this was adorable so I had to post another one. Here's Maya dancing to a new Rihanna song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHm86iaZZRo

Unhappy with Sharing Her Toys

I've been delinquent with blogging lately since I've been verrrry slowly getting over a nasty illness. Maya got it first in the form of a cold and ear infection, and of course she shared her germs with me and Hyder. We've all had a touch of fever, congestion, headaches - the whole nine yards. Fortunately, we seem to mostly be better now, which is great since we're headed on a trip soon. So excited to see family and enjoy some warm weather!

In the meantime, a bit of catch up. Last weekend we had some of my friends from work over for brunch - they brought their kids, both of whom are younger than Maya. We found out that Maya is not very good at sharing her toys. She started out by suspiciously regarding her new play buddies:

Then she cried whenever they tried to play with her toys:

And then she stood and guarded her toys:

Hopefully next time she'll do a bit better with sharing her toys!

Spring Might Finally Be Here

We've been out and about this past weekend enjoying the great spring weather and meeting up with lots of great friends. In fact, we had so much fun that I forgot my camera at a friend's house, so there will be more pictures coming later!

On Saturday, we spent a bit of time at an alumni event at Phi Beta Epsilon, which was the fraternity Hyder belonged to at MIT. They have a great location on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, right on the Charles River. We spent some time on the roofdeck:

And we spent some time inside, playing a game of pool:

In the afternoon we took Maya on her first trip to Chuck E Cheese's for her daycare buddy's birthday party. There she hung out with Bob the Builder:

 And she tried to play skee-ball:

Saturday evening we hung out with our friend Helene and a few of her hilarious friends. Maya was thrilled to hang out with her buddy Jack, and I think he was excited to be around someone his own size who always has food on her hands:

Sunday we headed out for a hike in The Fells and then brunch in Davis Square. Now that Maya is walking more, we're trying to give her more opportunities to practice. Plus she was all dressed up in her stylish gear for walking around town:

 We're looking forward to more good weather!

New Fashion and New Toy

Maya has only recently started to express interest in her clothing, so I've started to let her pick out her clothes. Of course, I only give her choices that are suitable for the weather. She was very excited to receive a pair of leg warmers from her buddy Erica (and Erica's mom Kathryn) so of course I had to put those on her. She was also pretty happy to open up a new toy I got for her: wooden blocks. Maya has enjoyed stacking them up and knocking them down, and I've enjoyed tripping on them as they are scattered all over the floor. Here she is rather immodestly showing off her new fashion and her new toy.

She's also become quite interested in imitating us, even wanting to put on our clothes. Here's she trying on Dada's vest, which he received from our lovely neighbors Marilyn & Ken:

Her imitations are quite cute; in the shower she pretends to pour out shampoo, rub it together in her hands, and then put it on her head. In her room she pretends to pour out lotion, rub that together in her hands, and put that on her skin. She's also been trying to put on her socks and shoes for a while, so hopefully it'll be no time before she can get herself ready in the mornings! ;-)

Walking Without Assistance!

Maya has finally decided to take more than 3 steps on her own - she's been getting more and more stable lately, so I guess she felt comfortable with walking a bit more. She started doing this yesterday at a friend's house, but of course I forgot to get out my camera. Tonight I managed to get a bit of video of her walking across the kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ur2dANLvDs.

Hopefully this, combined with the recent stair-climbing, is a sign of more to come from our little girl!

Enjoying Another Furry Friend

It seems that Maya has no shortage of furry friends to entertain her - she loves dogs, and fortunately, most of them put up with her!

Last week Hyder was out of town so Maya and I were on our own in the evenings. Our lovely neighbors Ken and Marilyn brought over a bunch of delicious food for dinner one night. They also brought over their adorable little dog Minnie, who was very patient with Maya:

It's tough to see from this angle, but Maya is grinning from ear to ear!